Improvements in hospital work environments, nurse staffing, and educational levels of nurses coincided with improvements in patient safety and quality of care in this panel study from Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia.

Using data from a panel of 737 hospitals in which nurses were surveyed in 2006 and 2016, the researchers found that changes in nursing resources were linked to significant changes in patient safety and quality care.

Improvements in work environments of 1 standard deviation decreased odds of unfavorable patient safety and quality care by factors ranging from 0.82 to 0.97.

The findings show that changes in nursing resources over time within hospitals are associated with changes in patient safety and quality of care, the researchers note.